Poppy fields in Kazakhstan: when they bloom and how to find them

Poppy fields in Kazakhstan flower from late April to mid May across Almaty, Zhambyl and Turkistan regions. Each field lasts about two weeks. Fields shift with seed spread, rainfall and soil, so nobody can give you a permanent location.

How to find a field

1. Start watching from late April. Tengrinews suggests checking social media for current locations.
2. Try the reported directions: the Kapshagay highway near Baiserke, the Kulja highway, beyond Burundai, Shengeldy, Ili district. These are past years’ spots.
3. Go early or late in the day, as a Kazinform photographer advises.
4. Keep driving past the first field. A photographer quoted by Tengrinews says crowds gather there and quieter fields lie further on.

A taxi or hired car is the practical way to do this, since fields are off the highway and change location. Kazinform once reported thin flowering in the usual places, so there is no guarantee.

What you are looking at

A specialist at the Institute of Botany says “poppies” here usually means three annual plants: the peacock poppy, with a short round capsule, Roemeria refracta, with a thin pod up to 10 cm long, and Glaucium elegans, with a bristly pod. None is on the Red Book plant list, whose only poppy is Papaver tenellum.

Field manners and nearby trips

The ministry asks people not to pick poppies, as they wilt quickly. Kazinform has reported litter in the fields, so take yours with you. Stay off private crops and do not stop on dangerous stretches of highway.

A May trip can also take in Charyn or the Black Canyon, whose page has a poppy photo too. More ideas for the month: where to go in May. All year: nature calendar.